Tregs
CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) control immune responses to self- and foreign antigens and play a pivotal role in autoimmune diseases, infectious and noninfectious inflammation, and graft rejection.
Tregs are able to ameliorate graft-versus-host disease (GvHD).
Cancer immunotherapy
Tumour-induced expansion of regulatory T (T(Reg)) cells is an obstacle to successful cancer immunotherapy. The potential benefit of T(Reg)-cell depletion through the interleukin-2 receptor is lost by the concurrent elimination of activated effector lymphocytes and possibly by the de novo induction of T(Reg)-cell replenishment.
In theory, the functional inactivation of T(Reg) cells will maintain them at high numbers in tumours and avoid their replenishment from the peripheral lymphocyte pool, which has the capacity to further suppress the effector lymphocyte anti-tumour response.
See also
References
Bommireddy R, Doetschman T. TGFbeta1 and T(reg) cells: alliance for tolerance. Trends Mol Med. 2007 Nov;13(11):492-501. PMID: 17977791
Colombo MP, Piconese S. Regulatory-T-cell inhibition versus depletion: the right choice in cancer immunotherapy. Nat Rev Cancer. 2007 Nov;7(11):880-7. PMID: 17957190
Rieger K, Loddenkemper C, Maul J, Fietz T, Wolff D, Terpe H, Steiner B, Berg E, Miehlke S, Bornhauser M, Schneider T, Zeitz M, Stein H, Thiel E, Duchmann R, Uharek L. Mucosal FOXP3+ regulatory T cells are numerically deficient in acute and chronic GvHD. Blood. 2006 Feb 15;107(4):1717-23. PMID: 16278306